Search plods along as local candidates eyed for city manager post

Sunday

Apr 13, 2014 at 6:00 AM

And so the search for a new city manager in Worcester plods along.

The City Council Municipal Operations Committee met behind closed doors Thursday afternoon to begin evaluating proposals submitted by three consulting firms vying for the contract to assist the council in its nationwide search for a city manager.

District 2 Councilor Philip P. Palmieri, committee chairman, said the three-member committee, joined by Mayor Joseph M. Petty, will need another meeting to complete its evaluation work before making its recommendation to the entire City Council.

He said that meeting will likely be held near the end of this month.

Even if the committee had come out with its recommendation on Thursday, not much more could have happened until the end of the month anyway, because the City Council is not scheduled to meet again until April 29.

All of which makes one wonder if the City Council is going to be able to meet the timetable that had been previously laid out of hiring a new chief executive for the city by early September.

The way things are going, it could be cutting things awfully close, especially since City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr.'s nine-month contract expires Oct. 3.

But Mr. Petty has emphasized that the timeline for hiring a new city manager is not necessarily cast in stone. He has made it clear it is subject to change and will be tweaked along the way if needed.

That said, the timeline the mayor laid out to the Municipal Operations Committee back in February calls for having a search firm on board by this month, at which time outreach is supposed to immediately begin soliciting candidates for the job.

That timeline also calls for a determination to be made on potential finalists for the city manager's job by the end of May, with interviews to be conducted over a three-day period in July.

Meanwhile, the City Council has yet to set any qualifications or establish any other details for the city manager's job, but that is not expected to happen until a search firm is on board.

The council Tuesday night, however, did adopt a report from its Municipal Operations Committee that gave an interesting glimpse of what the council will be looking for in the next manager.

The committee recommended that the search firm be made aware that it wants the following "attributes" highlighted in the city manager's job description:

•"An appreciation for the unique, diverse and distinct neighborhoods in Worcester and support for efforts to strengthen the neighborhoods."

•"A passion for public education and the Worcester Public Schools."

•"A vision for the future of the community, capitalizing on the development progress to date, and a familiarity with the city that a local person possesses so that she/he may hit the ground running."

Needless to say, those attributes scream out for the hiring of a "local" person.

After all, it would be difficult to find someone from another part of the country who has a passion for the Worcester public schools or an appreciation for the city's distinct neighborhoods; many potential candidates from outside the region probably know very little about Worcester.

The same goes for finding someone who isn't from the area "who has a familiarity with the city that a local person possesses" so they can hit the ground running; that will be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

So, while the City Council was spurned by Mr. Augustus when he decided not to seek the long-term city manager's appointment — he was the preferred candidate of several city councilors — it is clear that "local first" is still very much in the minds of more than a few councilors.

There seems to be very little appetite among some members for hiring someone who is unfamiliar with Worcester and its players, and would need months to get a lay of the land and learn how things work at City Hall.

Some simply don't have the patience for that.

That's not unique to Worcester, however. The Lowell City Council recently hired a new city manager and it chose a "local" person — state Rep. Kevin Murphy, who has represented Lowell in the state Legislature since 1997.

In hiring Mr. Murphy, several city councilors cited his familiarity with the Mill City and his deep knowledge of the issues facing it.

But it's hard to get a read on who might emerge as "local" candidates for the city manager's job in Worcester.

The two most obvious, Timothy P. Murray, president and chief executive officer of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Raymond V. Mariano, executive director of the Worcester Housing Authority, have already made it clear they have absolutely no interest in the city manager's job.

Certainly, if anybody could hit the ground running, it would be those two. Both are former mayors, members of the City Council and School Committee, and have excelled in their respective fields after leaving City Hall.

Indeed, one would be hard pressed to find people more knowledgeable about Worcester and its neighborhoods, and have more of a passion for the Worcester public schools than Mr. Murray and Mr. Mariano.

But there is another former mayor who might fall into that category: Joseph C. O'Brien.

Like Mr. Murray and Mr. Mariano, Mr. O'Brien has served on the City Council and School Committee, and during his tenure he proved to be one of the biggest advocates for the public schools. His relentless efforts led to more local funding for education, as well as for the maintenance of public school buildings.

Mr. O'Brien was a very active mayor and a champion of those whose voices were seldom, if ever, heard at City Hall. He also has a deep knowledge of economic development issues facing the city.

In fact, he fits the description of the kind of city manager that some people have said they were looking for.

Now back working for U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, one thing that might preclude Mr. O'Brien from consideration for the city manager's job at this time is the fact that he just left the City Council in December.

As for any other "local" candidates, who knows? But one may well emerge in the coming months.

For now, though, the city manager search process continues to just plod along.

Contact Nick Kotsopoulos at nicholas.kotsopoulos@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @NCKotsopoulos